Felipe Massa announces retirement from F1

Williams’ Felipe Massa has announced that he will be retiring from the sport at the end of season.

The 35-year old Brazilian driver has been driving in Formula 1 since 2002, when he made his debut with Sauber, and has completed 242 grands prix, therefore making him one of the most experienced F1 drivers in the history of the sport.

During his career, Massa has won 11 races, and achieved his best result in a Championship in 2008, where he came 2nd behind that year’s champion Lewis Hamilton, loosing out on the title by a single point.

As debates about the driver line-up for next year has been under speculation, it has been unknown wether or not Massa would be driving for Williams next year.

“In recent months I have been thinking a lot about my future and I have taken the decision that at the end of this season, I will leave Formula 1,” Massa reported.

“Life presents us with many choices and I think for me it has got to the time where I have to go and do something different.

“Maybe you will see me again at the wheel of a race car, but at the moment the only certainty I have is that I will have a lot of time to decide on what I do in the future.”

Massa admitted that he chose to announce his F1 retirement at Monza due to the fact that it is the same place where Michael Schumacher announced he was going to quit the sport.

“Why I chose to announce my Formula 1 retirement at Monza is not an accident,” Massa added.

“Ten years ago in Monza, a driver announced he was leaving too – and he is one more than any other that had an influence on career: Michael Schumacher.

“I had been promoted to Ferrari at the beginning of the season, but I had been told already that in 2007 Kimi Raikkonen would be arriving – so my experience in ‘red’ could have been limited to just a single season.

“Then Michael made the decision to stop and I was certain that I could continue with Ferrari for the following seasons.

“Ten years on from that day, and in the same paddock, I decided to announce my decision.“

4 thoughts on “Felipe Massa announces retirement from F1”

Agreed, however I imagine we’ll see his son in the sport one day! And every retirement has a new lining- I’m sure we’ll see a new younger driver in the sport in 2017- I expect Stoffel Vandoorne at McLaren.